Crook Uses Heat Vision Drone To Target Weed Growhouses

Law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA in the US, have used thermal imaging cameras for a long time to locate marijuana growhouses. That’s because the hydroponic lights used for indoor growing operations give off a significant amount of heat, making them vulnerable to detection through the aforementioned cameras. When they come across a growhouse, they bust it. A crook in the UK is doing the opposite. By attaching a heat seeking camera to a drone, he seeks out growhouses and steals their weed, or compel them to pay “tax,” a fancy word for extortion.

Halesowen News interviewed the tech-savvy weed criminal who initially brought the drone so that he could look into people’s windows. When he noticed that police helicopters used thermal imaging cameras to find indoor marijuana growing operations, he bought a heat seeking camera online and hooked it up to the drone. When he locates a property he and “his crew” burgle the place.

Contrary to what most people would think, apparently in places like Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury “the people growing it are not gangsters,” says the crook. Apparently they don’t even need to use violence half the time when they hit up a growhouse.

Obviously in the crook’s eyes this isn’t a blatant violation of peoples’ privacy, let alone a complete disregard for the law. “I am just after drugs to steal and sell, if you break the law then you enter me and my drone’s world,” he says.